A smooth traffic transition seems to be about as common as a unicorn, but we're trying our best to make it happen. Texas Sterling Construction crews began converting to one-way the I-10 frontage roads between Dominion Drive and Boerne Stage Road this morning at about 9:30. The frontage roads will be permanently one-way by early afternoon.
Once work is finished the westbound side will feature one lane for active traffic between Dominion Drive and the old westbound exit ramp before traffic flows into old downtown Leon Springs. (The connection to the new frontage road, linking directly to Boerne Stage Road, will open by the start of May.) On the eastbound side traffic will be down to one lane between Boerne Stage and Dominion Road. This one-lane situation will remain until the end of summer.
A new westbound exit ramp to Leon Springs will be finished, if weather cooperates, by the end of next week. Once traffic is on that new ramp the old one will close and the connector we just mentioned will be built, along with a new westbound on-ramp from Dominion. This is a brand-new ramp that's never existed before, meaning folks heading from Dominion Drive on to Boerne can do so bypassing Leon Springs altogether.
Other changes, other places
The new southbound main lanes of Lp 1604 between Bandera and Culebra roads are on pace to come online mid-April. If weather cooperates (you know, that whole "April showers" thing...) Williams Brothers Construction will lay the final surface of asphalt on the southbound main lanes through the first two weeks of the month. Traffic will, for all real purposes, be in its final configuration - complete with exit and entrance ramps - on the southbound side when the lanes open.
The northbound side will follow some 3-4 weeks behind the southbound side. As crews finish work on the southbound side they are moving to the northbound side for similar activities.
All told and weather permitting, work on the Lp 1604 expansion project could wrap up by mid-May. Crews will remain in the area to finish the new interchange at Hwy 151, which is on pace to be finished by the end of this year.
Don't forget one more
Though it certainly sees its fair share of traffic - some 70,000-plus cars run through every day - the work on US 90 between I-410 and Lp 1604 on the city's far west side seems to run under the radar a bit. The frontage roads along this project are set to be converted to one-way in just a little over a month. Details on how that will take place will be posted as we draw closer to an actual date.
